An ambitious and consistently surprising patchwork of
online music, The Devil’s Traxionary was created by Scott Michaelsen, an English Department colleague at Michigan
State, and Anthony
Shiu, a PhD in American Studies from MSU who now teaches at University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Beginning on 1/1/11, with the Bee Gees’ “I Started a Joke,”
and continuing for more than two years, Michaelsen and Shiu posted a
song a day (two on Saturday and Sundays). 1001 songs total. Each with a pithy, sometimes densely
theoretical critique that riffed in a few sentences on the interplay of lyrical
content and sonic signifiers. Then, finding they couldn’t stop, Michaelsen and Shiu started up
again in March, now posting songs every other day.

Readers of RiAH may find Traxionary entertaining if not useful in a number of ways. First, it will almost certainly expose you to a broader range of
contemporary musics than you will have ever experienced otherwise. Second, it is
well indexed and eminently searchable. You can search by song title here or
by artist here. The songs are thoroughly tagged. So, for example, a search for
“Christianity” turns up these:

Here's what Traxionary had to say about that last one, with George Jones and friends:

Christianity prays for a circular temporality--for an experience of time
which fully reverses itself, and in which the scatteredness of beings
is accounted for and recouped. In this vision of history, one is saved
literally, like a penny in a jar. Given such a model, in which there is
no loss or death, one might conclude that “Christian ethics” is a
contradiction in terms, and literally cannot exist; or, that it’s really
just a variant of a generalized moral frugality, and therefore begins
and ends with Ben Franklin.

What’s not to like about the Devil’s Traxionary? Depending on your taste for Continental philosophy, the
commentaries can be obscure, the parentheses-play a bit excessive at times. Some of the links don't work now. Sometimes the tone is snarky; it can be
jarring to find a song or artist you always liked, without much reflection, being deconstructed by critical theory. But the comments are always succinct and usually penetrating; in many cases you'll hear the song differently than you ever have before.